This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

The orange silicone wristband says “No one fights alone,’’ and the only time 9-year-old Robbie Schywalsky takes it off is when he runs onto the baseball field to play with his Topham Park Minor Softball League mite division team.

A league rule against players wearing jewelry means Robbie “takes it off when he’s going on the field and hands it to me,’’ says his mother, Jennifer Schywalsky, who wears the same cancer awareness bracelet.

But Schywalsky and her son are upset about the rule and consider it “hypocritical.’’ The softball league, located in the St. Clair Ave. E. and O’Connor Dr. area, made an exception for this year and is allowing its 500-plus players to wear a red Topham Park silicone bracelet, celebrating the league’s 40th anniversary.

Schywalsky and her son have their wristbands on “24/7’’ in support of her husband and Robert’s father, Robert senior, who’s been battling chronic lymphocytic leukemia since 2005.

“We are determined to wear these bands until my husband is cured of this terrible disease,’’ says Schywalsky.

Article Continued Below

Robert Schywalsky, 44, is about to start a second round of chemotherapy and if a subsequent CT scan shows improvement, doctors will prepare him for a bone-marrow transplant.

It’s an emotional time for the family and the wristband is a tactile expression of their determination to fight this disease.

Jennifer Schywalsky asked if Robbie could be allowed to wear his cancer awareness bracelet since it’s the same material as the Topham Park one, but league president Susan Osborne said it wasn’t allowed.

Schywalsky said some of Robbie’s teammates also want to wear the wristband. She bought about 100 and has given them to any team member and parent who asks.

Robbie said he “sleeps with it on’’ and thinks the wristband is “important because cancer is a serious problem in the world. Tons of people have it. I want to help support people find a cure for it and for my dad.’’

In an email to team parents, Osborne said the league is allowing players to wear the Topham Park bracelet to give them an opportunity to “show their Topham spirit’’ in celebration of the anniversary.

“We banned other bracelets because we knew we would not be able to control what teams might try to wear if we didn’t restrict them. We fully appreciate the significance of wanting to make an exception for this particular bracelet, but we felt that if we allowed one team to do it, it would result in us having to allow all bracelets, regardless of the cause and it would diminish the importance of this very worthy cause.’’

Osborne told the Star she feels for the Schywalsky family. The league recently decided to dedicate its June 15 Family Fun Night to cancer awareness and encourage people to buy awareness wristbands.

Because of the furor the issue has raised, the league executive has called an emergency meeting and may well ban the Topham Park bracelet as well, Osborne said, adding she finds some of the reaction “hurtful.’’

Some parents have told her they support the banning of other wristbands and don’t like that this has become an issue, she said.

“We can’t do this, we can’t allow one and not the other. Someone might want to wear one for the Rolling Stones,’’ Osborne said.

But Schywalsky said she’s not trying to impose her views on anyone. In handing out the cancer awareness wristbands, she’s made it clear people are free to wear them or not.

“Why promote a park when you can promote cancer research? Why not allow both bands?’’

Schywalsky said one parent has made a standing display board so players can hang up their cancer awareness wristbands before they go on the field and pick them up when they come back.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com